The Odyssey
Background
In the tenth year of the Trojan War, the
Greeks tricked the enemy into bringing a
colossal wooden horse within the walls of Troy.
The Trojans had no idea that Greek soldiers
were hidden inside, under the command of
Odysseus. That night they emerged and opened
the city gates to the Greek army. Troy was
destroyed. Now it was time for Odysseus and
the other Greeks to return to their kingdoms
across the sea. Here begins the tale of the
Odyssey, as sung by the blind minstrel Homer.
Book One
"Oh Goddess of Inspiration, help me sing of wily
Odysseus, that master of schemes!" So Homer
begins his epic, though the hero himself is still
offstage. We are treated to a glimpse of life
among the supreme gods on Mount Olympus. Urged
on by Athena, the goddess of war, they decide
that Odysseus has been marooned too long on the
island of the nymph Calypso.
Book 2
Meanwhile, the mansion of Odysseus is
infested with suitors for the hand of his wife
Penelope. Everyone assumes Odysseus is dead.
His son Telemachus calls an assembly to ask for
help, and Zeus sends an omen of the suitors'
doom. Two eagles swoop down, tearing throats
and necks with their talons. Afterwards
Telemachus sets sail for the mainland to seek
news of his father.
Book 3
Telemachus consults King Nestor, who led a contingent
in the Trojan War when he was in his nineties. Nestor
tells what he knows of the Greeks' return from Troy:
"It started out badly because of Athena's anger. Half
the army, your father included, stayed behind at Troy
to try to appease her. The rest of us made it home
safely -- all except Menelaus, who was blown off
course to Egypt, where he remained for seven years.
Seek advice from Menelaus. I'll lend you a chariot to
travel to his kingdom."
Book 4
Menelaus tells what he learned of
Odysseus while stranded in Egypt after
the war. He was advised by a goddess to
disguise himself and three members of his
crew in seal pelts and then pounce on the
Old Man of the Sea. If they could hold him
down while he transformed himself into
various animals and shapes, he would send
them on their homeward way and give news
of their companions. Menelaus did as
instructed and was informed that Odysseus was
presently being held against his will by the nymph
Calypso.
Book 5
Zeus, the King of the Gods, sends
his messenger Hermes skimming
over the waves on magic sandals to
Calypso's island. Though the
goddess isn't happy about it, she
agrees to let Odysseus go. But the
raft on which he sets sail is
destroyed by his enemy, the god
Poseidon, who lashes the sea into a storm with his trident. Odysseus barely escapes
with his life and washes ashore days later, half-drowned. He staggers into an olive
thicket and falls asleep.
Book 6
Odysseus awakens to the sound of
maidens laughing. Princess Nausicaa
of the Phaeacians has come down to
the riverside to wash her wedding
dress. Now she and her handmaids
are frolicking after the chore.
Odysseus approaches as a suppliant,
and Nausicaa is kind enough to
instruct him how to get the king's
help in returning to his home.
Odysseus follows her into town.
Book 7
Odysseus stops on the palace threshhold,
utterly dazzled. The very walls are
covered in shining bronze and trimmed
with lapis lazuli. The blacksmith god
Hephaestus has even provided two
brazen hounds to guard the entrance.
Odysseus goes right up to the queen and
puts his case to her as a suppliant. The
king knows better than to refuse
hospitality to a decent petitioner. He
invites Odysseus to the banquet which is
in
progress and promises him safe passage
home after he has been suitably entertained.
Book Eight
The next day is declared a holiday in honor
of the guest, whose name the king still does
not know. An athletic competition is held,
with foot races, wrestling and the discus.
Odysseus is invited to join in but begs off,
prompting someone to suggest that he lacks
the skills. Angered, he takes up a discus and
throws it with such violence that everyone
drops to the ground. That night at a banquet,
as the court bard entertains with songs of the Trojan War, Odysseus is heard
sobbing. "Enough!" shouts the king. "Our friend finds this song displeasing. Won't
you tell us your name, stranger, and where you hail from?"
Book 9
"My name is Odysseus of Ithaca, and here is my tale
since setting out from Troy. We sacked a city first
off, but then reinforcements arrived and we lost
many comrades. Next we visited the Lotus Eaters,
and three of my crew tasted this strange plant.
They lost all desire to return home and had to be
carried off by force. On another island we
investigated a cave full of goat pens. The herdsman
turned out to be as big as a barn, with a single
glaring eye in his forehead. This Cyclops promptly
ate two of my men for dinner. We were trapped in
the cave by a boulder in the doorway that only the
Cyclops could budge, so we couldn't kill him while he
slept. Instead we sharpened a pole and used it to
gouge out his eye. We escaped his groping by clinging to the undersides of his
goats."
Book 10
"Next we met the Keeper of the Winds,
who sent us on our way with a steady
breeze. He'd given me a leather bag,
which my crew mistook for booty. They
opened it and released a hurricane that
blew us back to where we'd started. We
ended up among the Laestrygonians,
giants who bombarded our fleet with
boulders and gobbled down our
shipmates. The few survivors put in at the island of the enchantress Circe. My men
were entertained by her and then, with a wave of her wand, turned into swine.
Hermes the god gave me an herb that protected me. Circe told me that to get home
I must travel to the land of Death."
Book 11
"At the furthest edge of Ocean's stream is the
land to which all journey when they die. Here
their spirits endure a fleshless existence. They
can't even talk unless re-animated with blood.
Accordingly, I did as Circe instructed, bleeding
a sacrificed lamb into a pit. Tiresias, the blind
prophet who had accompanied us to Troy, was
the soul I had to talk to. So I held all the other
shades at bay with my sword until he had drunk
from the pit. He gave me warnings about my
journey home and told me what I must do to
ensure a happy death when my time came. I met the shades of many famous
women and heroes, including Achilles, best fighter of the
Greeks at Troy.
Book 12
"At sea once more we had to pass the Sirens,
whose sweet singing lures sailors to their
doom. I had stopped up the ears of my crew
with wax, and I alone listened while lashed to
the mast, powerless to steer toward
shipwreck. Next came Charybdis, who
swallows the sea in a whirlpool, then spits it
up again. Avoiding this we skirted the cliff
where Scylla exacts her toll. Each of her six
slavering maws grabbed a sailor and wolfed him down. Finally we were becalmed on
the island of the Sun. My men disregarded all warnings and sacrificed his cattle, so
back at sea Zeus sent a thunderbolt that smashed the ship. I
alone survived, washing up on the island of Calypso."
Book 13
When Odysseus has finished
his tale, the king orders him
sped to Ithaca. The sailors
put him down on the beach
asleep. Athena casts a
protective mist about him
that keeps him from
recognizing his homeland.
Finally the goddess reveals herself and dispells the mist. In joy Odysseus kisses
the ground. Athena transforms him into an old man as a disguise. Clad in a filthy
tunic, he goes off to find his faithful swineherd, as instructed by the
goddess.
Book 14
Eumaeus the swineherd welcomes the
bedraggled stranger. He throws his
own bedcover over a pile of boughs as
a
seat for Odysseus, who does not
reveal his identity. Observing Zeus's
commandment to be kind to guests,
Eumaeus slaughters a prime boar and
serves it with bread and wine.
Odysseus, true to his fame as a
smooth-talking schemer, makes up an
elaborate story of his origins. That
night the hero sleeps by the fire
under the swineherd's spare cloak, while Eumaeus himself sleeps outside in the rain
with his herd.
Book 15
Athena summons Telemachus home and tells
him how to avoid an ambush by the suitors.
Meanwhile back on Ithaca, Odysseus listens
while the swineherd Eumaeus recounts the
story of his life. He was the child of a
prosperous mainland king, whose realm was
visited by Phoenician traders. His nursemaid,
a Phoenician herself, had been carried off by
pirates as a girl and sold into slavery. In
return for homeward passage with her
countrymen, she kidnapped Eumaeus. He was
bought by Odysseus' father, whose queen
raised him as a member of the family.
Book 16
Telemachus evades the suitors' ambush.
Following Athena's instructions, he proceeds to
the farmstead of Eumaeus. There he makes the
acquaintance of the tattered guest and sends
Eumaeus to his mother to announce his safe
return. Athena restores Odysseus' normal
appearance, enchancing it so that Telemachus
takes him for a god. "No god am I," Odysseus
assures him, "but your own father, returned
after these twenty years." They fall into each
other's arms. Later they plot the suitors' doom.
Concerned that the odds are fifty-to-one,
Telemachus suggests that they might need
reinforcements. "Aren't Zeus and Athena
reinforcement enough?" asks Odysseus.
Book 17
Disguised once more as an old beggar,
Odysseus journeys to town. On the trail he
encounters an insolent goatherd named
Melantheus, who curses and tries to kick
him. At his castle gate, the hero is recognized by a decrepid dog that he raised as a
pup. Having seen his master again, the old hound dies. At Athena's urging Odysseus
begs food from the suitors. One man, Antinous, berates him and refuses so much
as a crust. He even hurls his footstool at Odysseus, hitting him in the back. This
makes even the other suitors nervous, for sometimes the gods masquerade as
mortals to test their righteousness.
Book 18
Now a real beggar shows up at the palace
and warns Odysseus off his turf. This
man, Irus, is always running errands for
the suitors. Odysseus says that there
are pickings enough for the two of them,
but Irus threatens fisticuffs and the
suitors egg him on. Odysseus rises to the
challenge and rolls up his tunic into a
boxer's belt. The suitors goggle at the
muscles revealed. Not wishing to kill Irus
with a single blow, Odysseus breaks his
jaw instead. Another suitor, Eurymachus,
marks himself for revenge by trying to hit Odysseus with a footstool as Antinoos
had done.